The most solid step forward for the gambling and entertainment industry in the last 70 years!

Hello iGaming people!

On a sad and worrying day, when Russia and Ukraine came into conflict, whose worldwide repercussions are still uncertain, I set myself to deal with the approval, yesterday (technically, today, as it is already after midnight), of PL 442, which takes care of the regulation of gambling.

And I will stick to that.

The approval of the PL is, in fact, a great sign. Can you celebrate? To some extent yes.

The undeniably positive side is that the need to regulate and release gambling in Brazil is a reality in the Brazilian parliament. The negative side is that the project could be better, but nothing that maturity can’t solve.

At first, the values ​​of licenses/authorizations are very high and some operators question whether it will be financially feasible to open a gaming “house” here. Sports betting was removed from the old project 442, which was legalized by law nº 13.756/2018 and whose infralegal regulation has been in the hands of the Federal Government since then.

It would have been a great opportunity to repeal this Law, badly done, and put everything under this project, in better terms. Textually, the Rapporteur Federal Deputy Carreras spoke about it yesterday, during the session. He said that sports betting (mistakenly called a fixed-odds lottery) is being regulated by the Federal Government and that it was not the time to reverse this advance. Well, for those who think that poorly written law is an advance, the speech of the Deputy makes sense. I do not think. I think we could change that picture.

The bill now goes to the Senate which can bar, approve or change the bill. In the first case, the project goes to the file. In the second, it goes to presidential sanction. In the last one, it goes back to the Chamber to deliberate on the changes.

It is almost a consensus in Brasilia that this project will also be approved by the Senate, but vetoed by President Bolsonaro, who will serve his evangelical base. With that, the project will return to the Chamber of Deputies which, by all indications, will override the presidential veto.

Let’s follow the next chapters of this journey.

This is the first column of this new iGaming Brazil partner. We have not yet defined the ideal format for this partnership that begins on this emblematic date, but it is certain that the readers will live a little longer with my opinions.

I’m Witoldo Hendrich Júnior, founding partner of Hendrich Advogados and Online IPS and now a columnist for iGaming Brazil.

A big hug and until next time!